Skakel judge has history of reversing rulings

David Hennessey

Updated 9:32 pm, Saturday, March 30, 2013

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Judge Thomas A. Bishop, who has served on the state Superior and Appellate courts, will hear the habeas corpus case of Michael Skakel. The trial is scheduled to begin April 16 in state Superior Court in Rockville. less

Judge Thomas A. Bishop, who has served on the state Superior and Appellate courts, will hear the habeas corpus case of Michael Skakel. The trial is scheduled to begin April 16 in state Superior Court in ... more

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Skakel judge has history of reversing rulings

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A veteran Connecticut judge whose record shows he is not afraid to free convicted prisoners and overturn prior rulings will preside over the upcoming trial of Michael Skakel, the Kennedy cousin seeking an end to his 20-years-to-life sentence for the murder of Greenwich teenager Martha Moxley.

Beginning April 16 in state Superior Court in Rockville, Thomas A. Bishop will hear the habeas corpus case of Skakel, 52, who has filed a petition claiming that Mickey Sherman, his attorney at the time of his 2002 trial, was ineffective.

The upcoming habeas corpus trial -- a legal proceeding through which someone can challenge his or her imprisonment -- will revolve around Skakel's right to effective assistance of counsel.

Bishop, who was appointed to the Criminal Justice Commission in 2001, is now a judge trial referee for the state -- a position for judges who are 70 years old or older and have been designated by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to hear cases.

Bishop is not the same judge who issued a decision March 1 that allowed Skakel's petition to go to trial next month, however. That decision, filed in state Superior Court in Rockville, came from Samuel Sferrazza.

Lindy Urso, a Stamford attorney not involved in the Skakel case, said that bringing in Bishop for the trial was probably done for the purpose of "judicial economy."

With Bishop dedicated to the Skakel trial, other matters are less likely to be held up, Urso said. The trial could run several weeks.

"To pull a judge trial referee down to handle a habeas trial is an unusual move," Urso said.

A message seeking comment about Bishop's appointment to the trial was left at the office of the Tolland Judicial District, which includes state Superior Court in Rockville.

Skakel was convicted of the murder of 15-year-old Moxley, his neighbor in Belle Haven at the time of the 1975 killing, after a blockbuster trial. He is imprisoned at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield. He continues to maintain his innocence, and Bishop must rule in his favor if he is to soon have a chance at freedom.

Bishop has shown he will let a prisoner go if he believes the facts dictate it, or if the legal process has not been carried out correctly.

In 1996, two years after he was appointed a state Superior Court judge, Bishop ruled that Lawrence J. Miller, a former police officer who had been imprisoned for 13 years in connection with the beating of two teenagers in Danbury, was "factually innocent," according to The New York Times. Miller was released from jail, and Bishop, in his ruling, questioned how Danbury police handled the case.

He became a judge of the Appellate Court in 2001 -- another position in which he challenged previous rulings.

In 2004, he reversed a Superior Court ruling that the shooting of a wife by her husband was covered under a homeowners policy, according to Insurance Journal.

At the Superior Court trial over the claim, the court ruled against Allstate, holding that the shooting was covered under the policy because the shooting was accidental. The Appellate Court ruled that the lower court erred in finding there was no evidence that the husband acted recklessly, when in fact there was evidence, according to the journal.

Also while serving on the Appellate Court, Bishop, as part of a three-judge panel, ruled favorably on the appeal of Michael DeMarco, a Stamford man charged with animal cruelty in 2007. DeMarco was represented by Urso. The appellate ruling stated that the lower court's conclusion that it was reasonable for police to enter DeMarco's home without a warrant was not supported by substantial evidence. DeMarco's conviction was vacated.

Bishop served in the family division in the Hartford Judicial District until he was assigned the complex litigation docket in Rockville in April 1999.

Before his appointment as a Superior Court judge, he was managing director of the New London firm Suisman, Shapiro, Wool, Brennan & Gray, P.C. He has also taught law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

When contacted this week by Greenwich Time, the school's communications director said law school staff would not comment on Bishop's role in the Skakel trial because the case is ongoing.